Video: D-Day landing at Imax theaters

    D-Day 3D: Normandy 1944, an Imax film, is scheduled to play at theaters across the United States and in Canada, Europe and Singapore. The U.S. Imax sites include the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington and the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport in Washington’s Virginia suburbs. The Smithsonian showings begin May 23.
    Multiple cinematographic formats, including animation, computer-generated images and live-action sequences, are used to show the events of June 6, 1944, when U.S., British and Canadian forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to wrest control of Europe from Nazi Germany.
    The 43-minute movie is narrated by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation, a 1998 book about the Americans who rose to the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II.
    The film “tells us the story of D-Day in a new way that gives such clarity to one of the most important events in the history of mankind,” Brokaw said. “I originally thought this was going to be another traditional documentary featuring grainy black-and-white footage, but as soon as I saw the first minutes of this film on the giant Imax 3-D screen, I found it irresistible.”
    Viewers will see U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower leading the Allies as they organize Operation Overlord, the code name for the Normandy landing.
   “We wanted to make a film to pay tribute to the millions of men and women, soldiers and civilians, who gave their lives for our freedom 70 years ago,” said Pascal Vuong, the movie’s writer and director.
    He added, “I thought for a long time about how to produce a large-format documentary on this subject, and finally found my own way of telling this complex story to family audiences using a brand-new ‘cocktail,’ mixing innovative film techniques.”  
    To find a theater, see the website.

     Story from a Smithsonian Institution news release.